Sonic the Hedgehog: Legend of the Syrias
by Crunchiecat
Summary: When an age old law is broken and Sonic's universe is under threat, old alliances are formed and new grudges are settled. New powers, new team mates, new enemy. They're going to need all the help they can get. R&R, romance, adventure and some humor.
1. Prologue

This story is currently under construction. if you are reading this you are taking the risk of thinking the story is stupid.

Ciao

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Where to start with a story… The beginning? No, probably not, because you would be asleep before I got halfway through. The beginning is too early, starting before the eons. Before anything ever existed, before existence existed. Before… well… You get the picture. It was really early on.

So how can we start a story that explains the universe, the mysteries of the cosmos and everything you've ever wondered so simply it's scary…?

Simple, with another question.

I know what you're thinking; '_Wait, wait, wait. Hold the phone right there, missy. You want to explain something with a question? Doesn't that sorta defeat the purpose completely?' _Yeah, it does, but then _you_ try and explain everything everyone's ever thought of without screwing up your sentence or fumbling on a word. No takers? Thought so.

No, I can tell you and answer what you want me to. But it probably won't make sense if you don't understand the whole story. And the whole story is long. Very, very long. So kick back, try hard to relax, and watch as the secrets of the universe unravel before your very eyes…

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It starts (or ends, who knows?) unfortunately with the broken heart of a young girl. Was there ever a sadder sight than a girl slumped over a picnic box, weeping her eyes dry? Probably, but then you've never been in her shoes, or if you have you certainly haven't made her decision. He had been late again, but this time he had gone too far. The midnight moon shone over a glittering field of wild-flowers. But this was not really the right mood climate because the date was meant to start at 7:00.

7:00.

Five hours. He left her waiting for five hours.

Too late. Far, far too late.

The story starts with Amy. A thirteen year old girl crying on now cold raisin bread and chewing numbly on the toffee she had made for her true love. The thick and rich caramel taste had some sort of soothing effect on her shredded soul.

_How could he abandon you? How could he?_

_What could be so important he could leave you waiting for so long? So, so long…_

The thought influenced the knot in her stomach to tighten and pull, making her want to hurl all over the prepped checkered blanket strewn neatly over the dimpled grass. The tiny dew on the tips of each blade sparkled in the dim light.

The wildlife was gorgeous, no doubt. But the stunning white flowers catching the pale moonlight just wasn't distracting her from the bigger picture. The humungous, obvious, cold picture. The one of _him, him, HIM!_

He didn't love her, he probably never would. Sonic was a self-centered jerk with a commitment issue and bad hair… But he was _her _self-centered jerk with bad hair.

And yet there was nothing hard to understand about the constant reply he always supplied.

_Just Friends. I just want to be friends…_

Why? Was there something wrong with her? Was she ugly, was she mean, was she wrong for him somehow? Could there be any other reason for her being rejected constantly by true blue other than her?

But she didn't want to change herself for him. She loved the eccentric, spastic and laughable Amy she was now. No doubt this was who she was, and that would have to change if she wanted Sonic. So it was an ultimatum. Her, or Sonic?

All this was racing through her mind while she was splayed out over the checked picnic mat, chewing toffee.

Then another thought cascaded through her head, providing an explanation to all of her problems. She dimly remembered Rouge the bat asking her a rather important question;

_I'm going to crisis city Ames, you should come for a month or two. It would be good for you._

Go with Rouge to Crisis City. It was cowardly, running away from her problems. Because that was what Sonic was.

A problem, one that she chased.

_Crisis City._

Amy packed up the wonderful food she had baked for the occasion into her picnic basket and folded the soft blanket on her lap, but only the tiniest particle of her mind was concentrating on the folding. Most of her head focused on the tiny splatter of tear-drops collecting on the wonderful fabric.

_No more tears. No more tears over him. You have to promise yourself, Amy._

What was wrong with her? Why couldn't he just open up enough for her to get in? Controlling, nasty, horrible… She was all of those things to herself, but he had agreed to come here with her. A picnic, he had said, was something he just couldn't turn down. He even offered to bring drinks!

But maybe this was what he wanted. He wanted her to sit here, sobbing until she was empty of tears in her best yellow summer dress and strewn roughly over the grass until she had an epiphany on their status together. Hollow. Devoid. Nothing. Empty. Worthless. A figment of her 'over-the-top' imagination.

The deal had been sealed; she was going to Crisis City. Only for a few months, until she got her bearings back. Because they were well and truly lost.

_Collect yourself Amy, let go for a while._

She would be independent, the real Amy Rose. Meet a nice guy who could buy her hot chocolate, come on time to dates, pay her attention and shower her with expensive chocolates on valentines. Be everything she's ever wanted in a man, everything she's ever deserved in life.

But then she would come back after a few months and be a better person. Yes, that was who she was going to be. Because there was nobody better then Amy Rose the hedgehog. Thirteen years old and already making a life choice.

She grinned to herself and the teardrops fell faster than before, hitting the quilt and spreading out along the fibers. She imagined how her eyes must look right now, puffy and red, the jade smears of irises glittering with every marble-sized tear.

Amy stood up on shaky feet and made her way to her tiny pink cottage to pack.

_To start a new..._

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The waves throbbed impatiently below L.I.M.B.O's private cliff. Lapping angrily up the sides of the rough stone wall and trying furiously to reach the building above. They crashed over each other one by one, but the constant turmoil was no secret to the people in the placid rooms above. They were all too aware of the activity.

L.I.M.B.O was the halfway point, and the portal beneath the oceans top layer was the only running portal to Mobius on Earth. The hole in the fabric of reality was held open by the flickering outline of the green chaos emerald, tied to this dimension by hundreds of skinny, white cords that somehow attached themselves to the gem by the miracle of science.

L.I.M.B.O is an evil place, named after the line between heaven and hell it is the only government funded facility where humans try to cross the breeds. They took Mobian fetuses donated by the poor residents who couldn't afford to feed another mouth and changed them. And changed is an understatement.

From dolphin to hawk.

Cat to mouse.

Lion to bat.

It had all happened here, and it was all too common for experiments to… well… _Terminate_ themselves.

There had been numerous successes here, but a lot more failures. There was a five out of ten chance that if you walked down one of its bleached hallways you could hear the uncomfortable sound of flat-lining blaring out one of the pastel-blue holding pods.

But today there would be more than one death, because today evil was rising. And its first stop was L.I.M.B.O.

One of the CES's (Crossover Experimental Scientists) was walking down the hallway with his eyes glued on the clipboard clutched in his bony hand. He stopped at each room and listened carefully for the beep of a heart.

_Bee-beep_

_Bee-beep_

_Bee-beep_

He grunted charmingly and ticked the paper clipped to the board. Trotting down the hallway he stopped at another door;

_Beeeeep_

_Beeeeep_

_Beeeeep_

Yes, this heart-beat was different. The heart in this creature had to beat extra hard in order to get blood to all four corners of its huge body, even the holding pod had to be enlargened. He ticked the pad with the least amount of enthusiasm ever and moved to the next door.

Silence

What had happened? It wasn't dead, then there would be that loud and obnoxious beep. Could it be empty? Yes, that was probably it. But it was quite surprising; they usually filled them up straight away after an expiration of the previous inhabitant.

_Bee-beep_

Ah, a sound at last. This must be the experiment where it wasn't a fetus to start out with, quite morally illogical. The child would grow up with knowledge of a past life, maybe not a happy life. But still a life.

_Morally illogical says the scientist ruining people's lives…_

_OUTSIDE_

The darkness slid across the ground faster than any eye could track, its slippery form darting closer towards the front doors of the bleach white building. Two guards were blocking the front door, arms crossed and feet apart.

_How pathetic._

The slimy mixture separated and moved towards each guard. It pooled around their feet and climbed up their legs, managing to reach up to their waists until they noticed.

"What the-" But it was too late, as the blackness had now climbed over their mouths and blocked out any screams that they might have managed to muster over the fear. Soon there was only the black outline of their bodies, one they had no control over.

The hostage bodies stood rigid and marched in perfect unison through the large entryway, guns forgotten and arms dragging on the floor below them…

The screams of pain shooting out of L.I.M.B.O's white walls were muffled by the blanket of night.

_The worst night in hell..._

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"Fi! You up yet?" A girlish and high-pitched voice yelled out from outside. Felix Rivvett woke with a start, sitting up quickly and knocking the navy blue quilts off his body quickly. He clutched his chest in shock and patted his hand around the bedside table for his alarm clock.

Instead he hit the growing pile of… _Mature _magazines collecting in his room. He cussed under his breath and lifted them up one by one in a fruitless search mission for the clock.

He found it and rubbed his eyes free of the milky haze that always followed sleep. 9:00. Wow, he had slept in quite a bit. Felix remembered his best friend waiting outside the window and stuck his head out. Yup, it was her alright. She was dolled up in her usual attire, a frilly dress of some sort (today's was a meek lemon meringue color) and strappy heels. Her pastel pink hair was tied back with a frilly yellow ribbon and her wolf tail swayed behind her impatiently.

"What are you doing here, Jayne?" Felix asked a little whiney, he hadn't had time to put his shoes on and they felt naked and bare on the cold hardwood floor. Jayne was his best friend, always had been since kindergarten. She was the sort of girl that could tell the difference between the color brown and chocolate and never went anywhere without five layers of eye shadow. She was also a year younger than Felix.

"It's strawberry picking day! Remember?" She asked, raising two tiny baskets above her head to show him she was ready. She understood the answer by the dumbstruck look on Felix's face.

"Oh, you know! Last week, when we passed in the hall… Just before you were out of earshot I whispered the date we were going! Remember now?" Felix dropped his head on the window pane and muttered something unintelligible.

"I won't come." He told his eccentric friend. She grinned like she had been expecting this and her pearly teeth curved into something far too evil to match her dress. She crouched into jump position and narrowed her eyes with a challenge.

"I'm coming up there on the count of ten!" She yelled, Felix felt his ears prick and he practically fell of the window pane back into his room.

"Ooooone" Jayne yelled and swung her wolf tail behind her in anticipation. Felix yipped and raced to the pile, immediately bundling as much magazines into his arms as possible. His head jerked around in a search for a place to stash the porn. Ah! The _closet!_

"Twoooooo" He heard the voice call threateningly from outside. He squeaked in fear and opened his closet up with his elbow. If Jayne ever, ever, **ever** found out about the mag's then the bantering would start; "Awwwwww, Fi is growing uuuup!" or "Yukky! How can you even look at this stuff? It's duisgusting!".

"Threeeeee" He chucked the stack of magazines in the space and slammed the door shut. There was still a lot left, so he rushed to get them.

"Foooouuur, I hope you're dressed!" She called, Felix scowled and grabbed his favorite bundle of socks. He was trying to pull them onto his feet while sweeping dirty magazines under his bed at the same time. Not such an easy task to accomplish considering he had only six seconds to go.

"Fiiiiiiiiive" Jayne called, Felix could picture her skipping with glee as he sprinted around his room and scattered to get changed. That demonic grin she always managed to sport whenever he was in some sort of panic both annoyed and scared the crap out of him. It was like a bunny assassinating somebody; totally weird and unnecessary.

He tucked a bundle of magazines under his arm and jumped to his chest of clothes… more like socks. He spread them apart to make some room and slammed them into the space he had made. There was plenty more drawers to go. Perfect.

"Siiiiiiiiiix…" She chanted, then without warning; "Seeeveeennn…" He wanted to throw something out the window at her, but the only thing in his hands was porno magazines. Shit, that wasn't gonna work.

He loaded the last magazines into the drawers and sighed with relief as he tried to keep them shut by holding his back up to them. Then he looked at the state of his room.

_Oh, holy mother of-_

It was chaos, like somebody had thrown a bomb in and then legged it. His quilt and pillows were on the floor, surrounded by a colossal pile of socks that seemed to have a heat haze in the air above them. The drawers to his bedside tables were flung open by last nights feeble attempt to find where he had left his homework, which he still needed to complete by next Wednesday.

Note to self- find homework.

"Eiiiiiiiiight" Her shrilling voice sang from outside. Felix cussed and made his bed, closed the drawers and- despite gagging –managed to sweep the pile of socks under his bed. He then tried to get the pizza slice stuck to the roof down with a broom. No good, it was stuck on there pretty good.

"Niiiiiiine" Felix did a quick check of his room; Cleaned (sorta), porno hidden and pizza slice dangling from roof. Not bad.

"Ten" She said and Felix could hear the soft thud of feet as she landed on the window pane. Jayne slid two fingers under the window pane and yanked it open. It groaned, but opened smoothly. She slid in and surveyed his room suspiciously. Felix was standing, eyes innocent as a doe, in the middle of his room. He was panting like crazy.

"Clean. Hmmm…" She hummed and rubbed her chin. But to Felix's immense relief Jayne shrugged and looped her arm through his; Jayne was a tightwad sleuth and was always suspicious of anything. Her love for drama and soap operas had well and truly consumed her soul.

"We should get moving- heeeeeey, what is this?" She said and rushed over to his bed.

A wedge of a magazine was poking out. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap… Jayne gasped as she looked at the front cover and a pinkish haze set over her cheeks. She was still for a second and Felix didn't know what to expect; praise, or a whomping lecture about how this was degrading to women.

"FI! My little Fi is growing up! AHHHHH!" She screamed ecstatically and gave him a huge hug; Felix guessed the fact that he was two years older didn't count.

"You like giiiiirrrllls!" Jayne chanted and clasped her hands together. Her blue eyes glittered like diamonds and her pastel pink hair fell over her shoulder. Felix felt his own blush forming as he was cornered.

"Uhhh, that is- umm- yeeah?" He managed to sputter, then did the age old hedgehog habit and rubbed behind his head. Jayne slapped his elbow with a scowl.

"Don't do that, it looks like you have lice. Now, let's go strawberry picking my pervy friend!" She chorused again and wagged her finger in the air. Felix groaned and looked up to the roof in frustration.

"WHY ME!" He yelled, but was shut up by a pizza slice landing on his face. Jayne cracked up and had to sit down. She wiped a tear from her eye and giggled.

"Because your diet sucks, my grotesque pizza-wasting friend! What are you- Ewww, don't _eat it!_ That's sick!"

_Friends forever..._

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"Father, you must advance the army. Eggman isn't going to wait while we idle over his attack time. I bet my rings his robots are marching closer as we speak!" A young brown deer was pacing on the straw floor. Her mouth was set into a stubborn line and her hands were linked behind her, all of these were signs of the growing frustration in her heart.

"Mistora, you really should calm down. I have Jonas and Frier on this project, there is no need for you to worry with them." A wizened old deer assured cross-legged on a straw mat. His beard was thin and wiry, bundling on the floor when he leant over and his deep, piercing grey eyes looked at his daughter with an amused expression.

"FATHER! This is _not_ a _project!_ The safety of our tribe relies on this victory! And what do you mean Jonas is on it, he wouldn't know an operation if it slapped him in the face! Or kicked him in the nuts, for that matter." Her thick British accent always startled her father and listening to it tended to bring back memories of his wife.

"Mistora, please calm down. Jonas is completely capable of running this operation." He tried to reason, but Mistora simply scoffed and trudged- or rather stomped- out the room.

She found a rock, her rock, outside the camp and splayed out over it like an experiment.

_Father, this is too important to leave to Jonas and Frier. We are the last tribe of deer alive. We can't lose this war._

She undid her brown plaid and let her long, brown hair wash over the rock. The deer tribe women had a dress code. Steel bands, colored according to rank over their chest, up their legs, arms and one across the forehead. Each belly-button **had** to be pierced with a ruby as an indication to the fact they were indeed part of a tribe.

Mistora felt her eyes slowly drift close and the twilight air caressed her into sleep. She couldn't hear the robots advancing in the trees to her left.

_If only she had woken..._

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Cleo danced down the stairs like a ballerina; her young feet barely tapped the stairs before she took off again. She twirled and spun, a serene smile lit up her young face and her eyes were closed delicately. She held her hands up and pirouetted mid air. It was no surprise everyone in the kingdom was startled by the princesses amazing acrobatic ability.

She certainly didn't inherit it from her mother or father; they were stiff as sticks while Cleo could wrap a hand around her heel without bending her knees. This shocked the King and Queen because apparently being able to fly through the air for longer than two seconds gave her an excuse to drift away from her duties.

"My princess, you must come to your father's study!" A plump purple fox maid called from the balcony in between the matching gold staircases. Cleo just hummed a little louder and did a neat little round-off. The maid sighed and kneaded her forehead with one fist.

"Cleonsara!" She called and the little fox girl stopped dancing. Cleo faced the maid and put her hands on her hips like a true eleven year old. She narrowed her eyes at the maid and tapped her foot.

"Bertha, you **know** I hate being called that." Her peppy little voice was stern and demanding. "And I **do not** want to go to daddy's study. I know perfectly well what he wants." She said cockily and crossed her arms with a pout.

"This is not something you can choose, princess. There are a lot of people are counting on you choosing a suitor. You are old enough to wed _and_ your mother is adamant you find a companion. You must remember, your father chose her to marry him when he was only ten. This is very important to her." Bertha tried to reason, but Cleo would have none of it.

"Oh yeah and **that** turned out well." She scoffed, toying with the massive bell around her neck. The ball inside it had fallen out long ago and now it didn't make any noise. This was a pity, because it used to ring out a beautiful sound.

"The cheek!" Bertha exclaimed and ushered the young girl up. Cleo scowled and hunched her shoulders, but complied. Soon she was at her father's study and her eyes crossed when she read the inscription on the door.

_True to thy self_

_That is thou fox morale_

It made no sense, because every fox in this damned kingdom was about as truthful as a coyote. She pushed the door open and Bertha bowed behind her. Cleo almost shrieked with rage when she saw what was inside the office.

Ten of them. Lined up with hopeful looks on their faces.

Boys, all well bred foxes clutching bundles of roses. She scowled at her father hidden behind the queue of suitors.

"Daddy!" She yelled in frustration and threw her hands up in the air. He went though this every year since she was 8. Grab ten of the wealthiest boys off the streets and line em' up. Get her married ASAP. She ground her teeth and a few of the boys murmured to each other.

SUITOR #2 POV

Rumors had been swept around the street many times of the princess's beauty, and her fire. But I had never expected _this!_

Her long and golden hair was tied back with a bell and cascaded in flowing waves down her back, stopping behind her knees. The short knee-high orange dress with separate sleeves seemed to be designed for only her and her orange strappy heels didn't scrape the bounce in her step.

Her face seemed to be made of porcelain and her lips pouted into a scowl for the King behind me. Her honey smears of irises burned with a brilliant annoyance, like we were a burden rather than a compliment to her. I could feel the burning blush creep onto my muzzle and I looked down at my roses, fidgeting like crazy.

She was by far the prettiest girl I had ever seen and I felt I didn't compare in her shadow.

"Daddy! I'm only eleven!" She yelled with the sweetest voice, like pealing bells. She was only eleven? Really? I was fourteen, and she was three years younger than me.

"Sweetie, you are of legal age of marriage. This means you must find a consort." He said, choosing his words carefully. I saw her eyes widen in disgust and her mouth turned into a little 'o' of horror.

"_NO!_ I want to find a man of my own! Somebody **I** can love; somebody I _chose_ to love! Why can't I choose?!" She demanded and I winced. Cleonsara was being unreasonable, but she was also right. I guess she didn't get much freedom up in the palace.

NORMAL POV

"I am leaving." Cleo said and stomped out of the room.

"A lot of girls would to anything to have a prince charming, what do you want?" Her father called after her, Cleo growled to herself and resisted the urge to shriek at him again.

"Prince charming aint' so charming when there's ten of him lined up on your doorstep every year!" She yelled back, opening the grand doors to her room.

_Happy eleventh birthday Cleo._

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Seth was training in the arena with his teacher, Master Johobei. His hands moved like lightning, touching his left wrist, left palm and right thumb over and over again. In result the air was kicking up dust around his feet and a few wispy tornados were forming out of the yellowish dust. He gritted his teeth in effort as the wind grew stronger, but still as strong as a cool summer breeze.

"Come on Seth, faster. Concentrate and put your mind to it." Johobei urged, he had been training Seth for five years now and the green hedgehogs sponge-like mind never ceased to amaze him. He had only told Seth a week ago about tornado summoning and he could already muster up a breeze. What Seth didn't know was that his teacher was putting a little strain on him by telling the winds to calm down a fraction. This would make it extra hard, but the boy seemed to be pulling through with flying colors.

"Uhn." Seth groaned and tapped faster, the winds livened up and a tiny wind circle was forming around his feet and kicking dust high into the air. Johobei looked on with a bemused and impessed look, stopping his influence over the winds to see how far he could go.

Seth immediately felt the weight lifted off his shoulders and tapped faster again, his hands left impressions in the air where they were before.

A small snake slightly bugger than him lifted up out of the sand, it's wispy form only visible by the sand holding onto it and giving it life. Seth grunted and Johobei nodded, he had taken anothe big step in a short amount of time, this boy was doing well.

Seth screamed when his power hit it's peak and the snake reared with him, writhing as it felt it's masters power being depleted. It screamed a hollow yelp before falling to the ground in a pile of sand and all that was left was a glittering pearl fang.

Seth fellto the ground and panted having pushed himself to his absalute limit. Johobei simply bent to pick up the fang and inspect it with interested violet eyes. He held it up to the sunlight and squinted at it, trying to figure out it's worth. When he was finished he chuckled and put it in his cloak pocket, walking over to Seth.

"Wonderful, my boy! You summoned a small sand snake! You're now officially ahead of your class and the one above it. The spirit-stone it left is not a strong one, but not quite as weak as the ones you could usually get from a beginner. Not to mention it is completely intact! Very good job!" Johobei praised and patted Seth on the shoulder. The green hedgehog grinned and limped over to his friends.

"Heeeey! Nice summoning Seth-boy! All I can muster is a beetle the size of my fist!" A red bat slammed him on the back with one hand and Seth grinned.

"Thanks Trent, whadda ya' wanna do now?" he slurred with a loopy smile. Trent coughed out a laugh and was about to answer when another student burst into the room.

"Yo! Guys! Fin has managed to nick something from Master Reyobei! And it's got **girls** in it!" He huffed with an ecstatic smile. Trent perked and slapped the junior on the shoulder with a grin. Master Reyobei was very well know as a notorious pervert, bringing in dirty magazines from the outside. "Well you better lead the way!" Seth looked confused.

"Wha?"

But Trent had him by the elbow and was dragging up the stairs to Fin's room. They came to the door and Trent knocked on it sharply. He waited a few seconds and then did a syncronised 'I'm-not-a-teacher-let-me-in' code tap. The door opened and one of the boys inside ushered them in, slamming the door behind them and making his way back to the magazine lying open on Fin's desk. A crowd of four boys were gawking at the rude pictures, Trent joining them, but Seth just stayed behind.

"What _is_ that?" He asked, making his way over to the magazine with a restrited amount of caution. The men on the paper were not like the ones at the school. They had two strange lumps on their chests and a skinny frame, their long hair were conveniently place over their pelvis and the tips of both lumps. Their faces looked different too, were these the strange girl creatures the junior was talking about? Trent looked at him with disbelief.

"You don't know what these are, man?" He asked, Seth shrugged. Fin, the sea-bird who had supposedly nicked the mag was clicking his tounge.

"These are girls, women, chicks! They are, like, the opposite of us! Not to mention Master Reyobei keeps talkin bout them like their so special or sumthin, but doncha reckon they're hot?" He asked, cramming a magazine into his face. Seth gulped.

The creatures, the ones on the paper, were weird and disfigured. But he couldn't help thinking they were pretty.

"Yeah!" He blurted, looking at the picture with wide eyes. Trent high-fived Fin and the boys crowded around the desk again, intent to study these strange beings once more.

_Becoming a man..._

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Tails placed a little bolt into it's place and started securing it in with his wrench. He was finishing the anual safety check on the X-Tornado. The yellow fox pulled up his check list and scanned over the things to do;

1) Double check bolts

2) Check and unclog radio links

3) Default scanning.

Tick, tick tick. It had taken up a lot of his time but he had finally managed to complete the checks. Tails sighed and tipped up his cap, wiping his sweaty forehead with a rag he was holding which left a dirty smear on his yellow fur.

He made his way to the last canister to do his final check, one that was very unlikely to go wrong. He opened the eski with the key dangling around his neck, dialed in the six digit code inside, did the retina scan, voice check, thumb print and the questionaire needed to be completed before opening the pod.

Inside, sitting in the gel holding them apart were seven black boxes. He pulled out the first and opened the lid; The purple emerald was present. Then the ice emerald. Then the blue emerald. Then the topaz emerald. Then.... Empty.

The green emerald was missing!

_And so it begins..._

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Pant pant. yay i've finished!

Special thanks to EmpireofShadow, my trusty editor.


	2. The starting line

Is it just me or is noone updating recently? Anyway, for a breath of fresh air here is my next chapter

Sorry for not updating .

* * *

Sonic could see the expanse of the trees from his perch on the cliff. A solid, undeniable mass of green, brown and the occasionally yellow and pink spots; truly an inspiration for some fancy-schmancy oil-painter. A few clearings and ponds spattered among the valley of foliage disrupted the enormity of it, but the sight was still extremely daunting. Sonic grinned, pleased with fresh burst of adrenaline that usually came with the offering of a new challenge.

He inhaled the sweetness that would escape him while running in through his nose, swung his feet over the side of the cliff, and dropped.

The ground raced at him alarmingly fast, almost forty meters below and counting. At roughly fifteen feet Sonic slammed his foot into the rough brown face of the cliff and launched himself into the density. Logs, trunks and branches obscured his vision for a few painstakingly exciting seconds before the maze beneath the leaves became apparent and he pushed off one trunk. Then another, then another, before the scene would remind anyone watching of a heated pinball match.

Sonic looked at his gloved hands, which streaked a small streak of white behind him. Sonic grinned again; he was supersonic in a forest. Another world record he was sure.

His foot tapped lightly on the hard surface of the forest floor, sending a tornado of foliage swirling behind him and birds escaping from the nearby trees. The steady rhythm of feet thumping on the ground as he ran, undisturbed by the swerving to dodge trees made Sonic's grin widen. He sped up.

The meeting point with Tails was growing closer, at the top o the large brown cliff at the end of the gully of trees. Sonic leapt, hit the surface with one foot, and ran. Rubble slid underfoot, but he didn't slow or change pace, just run. The tip of the cliff appeared overhead and Sonic's satisfaction reached its zenith.

He hit the gap. He flew.

Sonic ignored Tail's exasperated look mingled with impatience. He straightened himself midair and chuckled. Of course he looked good.

He was Sonic the Hedgehog.

* * *

The eyeliner pencil slid over the glass like scissors through paper. The perfect shape she carved was formed like a heart, about the size of a dustbin lid. Before the precious shard slipped towards the ground, triggering billions of alarms and angry looking red lasers, Rouge pressed against it with her index finger. With a small '_shuck'_ it glued and she lifted it out.

The outside was perfectly mirrored, yet if you looked up at this glass from inside you would see straight through to the twinkling stars above.

Smart, if you were an idiot. The pane was only a few centimeters thick. Yet the mirror had a hypnotic effect and Rouge un-stuck her finger and lifted the heart shape to her face. Pretty.

The CodÒr family jewel below was prettier, though.

Rouge set the pane aside and put her eyeliner in her bag. The ruby glowed below luxuriously and Rouge licked her blueberry stained lips.

The heart-hole wasn't _just_ a calling card. When Rouge's wings had developed their full size curling them up was a task, and they would end up resembling two cylinders. So Rouge's waist fitted into the point, but the wings slipped through the humps on the heart. Classy entrance though. In through the heart, take your jewels, run. Nice system.

Anyone walking into the skylight-room would have been slightly confused. She was a bewildering sight, especially for men. A huge chest, resting on a tiny waist, resting on chunky hips; that decked out in a tight buckle-lined purple cat-suit and purple cloth covering her mouth was like a national treasure. Added with her transparently white hair floating around her like a meter-long fog entranced many.

Rouge loved herself. And her mascara. The latter leading slightly.

The ruby perched tantalizingly on a cushion pedestal inside a glass case. She tapped the glass slightly; currents of digital-looking green lines spidered out from her finger, slowly regaining it's opacity about three centimeters away.

They expected her.

She spread her wings out and tugged on the cord holding her to the ceiling.

Rouge pulled out a small vial of sticky pink fluid and painted it on in a little heart on the side of the case. The smell of burnt glass and circuits filled the room like a stinky fog, Rouge grimaced. The gel was specifically designed to burn not only glass, but smooth over the ends of the circuits and trick them into believing it was still connected.

Well, for a short time anyway.

A few minutes later Rouge could hear the sirens screech below her, but she smiled and kept flying.

The ruby was tucked into her belt, city lights whizzing below.

She would be in Newtropolis by morning.

* * *

Shadow fell from the plane, headfirst, to the Mobius earth below. The wind slipstreamed over his long quills and he breathed through the torrent slapping against his face.

He hit the ground, soil flew, trees shook, Shadow stood.

The crater around him tingled with new impact and he looked skywards.

Target search initiated. The life around him blurred with each other, and his brain projected a glowing beam of red towards his project in his minds eye.

Sayonara, Sonic the Hedgehog.

* * *

Amy grimaced a smile as another customer swept through her store, bangles swishing and maxidress swaying. She was slightly overweight, with a pear-shape body shown in excruciating detail through semi-see-through fabric. Her earrings looked like they were going to rip a hole in her lobes.

"Miss, I am looking for a book" She slurped in a rich, pompous lisp. Amy's wide, unrealistic grin twitched as a spray of spittle ricocheted against her forehead.

God, her pores were hu-uge.

"Well, madam, you have come to the right place!" She stated. Duh, _Niño's Books, _three stars to Einstein in the unflattering taffeta. The woman narrowed her eyes, debating snorting or huffing. Amy wished she wouldn't choose either, as both would shower her in spit.

"It's on tarot reading, young miss, I'm afraid a mere bookseller like you would be unfamiliar on the topic. Amy's grin became real for a second, as her favorite subject came up, but she numbed it back down.

"I may know more than you think Ma'am, which volume are you looking for?" The woman rolled her eyes.

"Well, if you must. Please guide me to your selection"

The rest of the day was spent guiding her around the shelf stocking Niño's famous tarot books. Of course Amy was familiar with tarot.

She'd been the only ne so far to make it real.

* * *

The creature had the body the size of a bowling-ball with two menacing purple eyes, feet-less talons poking out the bottom, and a set of large, leathery black wings to keep its fat little body afloat. You wouldn't have been able to see its mouth unless it opened it, on which it would swing open like on a hinge and reveal row after row of dark yellow sharp teeth.

Overall it looked quite ridiculous.

Knox's slender (if not slightly overweight) feline body was that of an Earth feline, with manicured nails and a convenient little wing-pack that kept him out of trouble if he ever was. Also, his dental hygiene was immaculate.

The creature neared and Knox threw an orange at its ugly forehead, sending it scurrying away in pain. He _was_ this castle's protector, its army. Him and the other hundred thousand Voile's fighting further out in the White-land. But mainly him.

As no other creatures were coming closer, Knox bundled up his oranges, pulled his blue aviator goggles over his eyes and tugged at the drawstring on his wing-pack. The brown leather opened with a _snap_ and he smiles his catty smile.

Knox dropped off the branch and soared over for a view of the battle, unaware of the beady pair of violet eyes watching his every loop.

Tick-tock, tick-tock

* * *

Knox is a new character, he's a bit of a comic relief. Ignore the foreign words ya don't get, they're mobius words.

Bit short. They're not all going to be massively long, so I can update quicker.

Also if you have an art request I have forgotten about can you remind me? Thanks

Please R&R!


	3. We need a team

Sonic and Tails were nearing the Kitsune's lab. Sonic walked with a frustrated, bored expression and looked dully at the environment around him. Knowing the speedster, Tails could clearly read what was going through his mind; _"why aren't I running?"_ The urgency and panic Tails felt necessary for such a situation slipped mostly past Sonic. His idea of a bad day was one spent walking, rather than the _catastrophically powerful energy source missing for the last five years. _

A sigh escaped his mouth. In the past few years, Sonic had become more and more placid. He was less of the cocky prick that had annoyed most people and more of a shock-jock jerk that annoyed everybody. His once great love for running and fighting for justice had been morphed into some strange, mutated love for thrills. When he came home the first time with a jade piercing in his ear everyone had been shocked, now it was normal to come back one month and spot a silver stud or even a sapphire pierced into his tongue.

Part of the blame could be placed on the fact that the criminal activity in the major cities of Mobius had dried up somewhat. Tails figured that people had finally figure out that Sonic and co. were quite the unstoppable team, Sonic thought something different. He figured they were all working underground, working with Eggman in some diabolical plot. Tails might have been inclined to believe him, had Sonic not been obsessed with his thrills.

The last truly heroic act they did was three or something odd years ago rescuing a girl being held over a cliff by some psycho, Sonic had jumped in and rescued her. She was so grateful she gave him her scarf and told him he would always be her hero. That was an end of an era. After a while the police mostly took care of things like muggings while the team was searching for the missing emerald.

People say nothing strengthens bond like crisis. Well when the hope of finding the emerald grew dimmer, and the number of Eggman bases to scope out shrank, the need for there to be a team dried up. Soon the others found other things they needed to pursue. The first was Rouge, claiming she was spending too much time looking for one gem when there were hundreds around the world untouched by her hands. The next was Cream and Cheese, Cream had been accepted into a school on the other side of the planet, and so, with a teary goodbye and a solid promise to keep in touch, she left. Finally, when the famous trio of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles looked like it was the last line, Knuckles decided the case was a lost one and he had pressing duties to fulfill rather than staking out an Eggman base with no results. Then it was the two of them.

Amy had left long before all of it.

Tails slipped back to the present sadly when his hillside lab came into sight. It really was beautiful, his lab. Contrasting tar black against the bright yellow lab building, the lab's runway jutted out of the steep cliff and was supported by pillars that were dug into the toughest part of rock while the building itself was circular and protruded from the cliff face, three-inch thick bulletproof glass covering a whole panel. The glass reflected the valley below the cliff with a bronze-tinted reflective surface, but Tails knew that behind that was hidden store of state of the art technology in weaponry and vehicles. This was home.

Sonic cast a usual bored glance at the building and sprinted his way up the side of the cliff. Tails sighed again and made his way over to an irregular looking rock positioned by the base of the wall. He stood on it and rubbed his hand against a smooth, round rock protruding from the cliff. When he moved his hand, an orange highlight of his hand appeared over it and a green gradient slowly moved over it, checking his handprint. It confirmed that it was a match and a green line illuminated a path up the wall, silently triggering the rock Tails was standing on to rise up in the direction of the line. It rose for about a minute up about fifty meters, letting Tails marvel at the dormant volcanic crater that had flourished for about fifty years after its eruption. Now it was an untouched patch of paradise that Tails had chosen to build his hub in. Not only for the recreational value though, the deep brown rock that were the cliff faces had some sort of energy about them which scrambled primitive satellite signals. This made his base virtually impossible to locate without the right technology.

The line made stop about seven meters before he would reach the underside of the runway. In the virtually impossible event that somebody got this far, this is where they would get stuck. The line went no higher, and in two minutes the rock platform would sink silently to the floor below. Tails took a minute to appreciate his own craftiness and walked straight into the hologram wall behind him.

Behind the hologram the bottom floor of his house sparkled to life. Bedrooms of different colors sat behind red doors in the plush circular room next to kitchens and multiple bathrooms. Sitting in the middle of the room was a coffee table surrounded by a circular blue couch. For a split second Tails let himself remember the time when all of them had come out at midnight to play video games, laughing at Sonics' dumb jokes and Knuckles not understanding them. He shook himself out of it. They weren't here anymore; there was no point in remembering what had been. Swallowing the lump in his throat Tails made his way to a spiral staircase sitting in between two empty bedrooms.

The top floor was bigger and was a dark grey color, a giant dome filled with high tech planes and vehicles. This was Tails' world, his hangar. He breathed in the smell of a tidy workshop and allowed himself to slip into a happier fantasy of machines and tools. He was harshly snapped out of that fantasy by Sonic tapping impatiently on the glass wall at the other end of the room. He tried to squint in but Tails knew he would see nothing.

He trotted over to the wall and flipped a switch. The seamless glass wall split in the middle and slowly retracted into the volcanic flesh that surrounded his house. Sonic grinned and stepped inside.

"It's cold out there; I was waiting for a whole two minutes for you!" Sonic complained. The second Tails called his bluff Sonic's head would get so big it would explode, so he instead turned around and swiped his hand over a panel in the wall. A whirring noise came from above and another metal coffee table descended from the roof, stopping at waist height.

Tails ran his hand over the surface and the planet of Mobius materialized as a hologram. Had Sonic appreciated the finesse of this technology he would have seen the tiny pixels release themselves from the top layer of metal, illuminate, and fly around to match the description that Tails had programmed. Sonic just chewed his tongue piercing and enjoyed the pretty lights.

The globe spun on its axis, the two moons surrounding it were at a lower resolution and more pixilated than the planet. Tails clicked on an illuminated, hovering keyboard and about a hundred dots flashed to life in a bright green.

"Over the past five years, we've checked out all possible hiding points for the emerald. The choices are growing slimmer and we can't be everywhere at once, Sonic." Tails breathed in through his nose and dashed his fingers along the keyboard. Sonic perked up a little when four purple dots sparked up at seemingly random locations. Sonic looked at him bewilderedly.

"This is way beyond us, Sonic. We've entered the point wher we have to consider the possibility that the emerald might not even be on Mobius anymore! With the ultra-fine sensory field surrounding our planet you know how impossible that is. If the emerald _left_ Mobius the Master emerald would react and we could be out there in seconds!"

Sonic still looked confused, so Tails sighed. His fingers danced on the keyboard again and the planet disappeared.

"We need a team, and, unlike you, I've been trying to stay in touch with everybody! Everyone has improved! The team isn't like before, we've all been training and trying hard!"

He breathed in and Sonic looked at him stupidly.

"What's wrong with just the two of us? The guys can't even leave Mobius let alone outrun me!" Tails winced at the arrogance of his best friend "I say who needs 'em" Sonic huffed and crossed his arms, flicking his index finger under a soft spot under his nose.

"Sonic, it's not that we _want_ them, we _need _them! We were once the strongest force on Mobius! Please, just consider it?" Tails pleaded. The blue hedgehog resigned and stood back, flicking his hand at the screen.

As if on cue, a familiar face materialized. Knuckles' head just above the neck spun around above the table. It shrank after a while and a list of stats wrote themselves beside him in purple. Tails read them out.

"Knuckles The Echidna. Strong, tactical and resourceful. He's been minding the Master Emerald for five years, but that's not all. He's been learning tai chi, and is already considered a master after only three years. He's faster and stronger than ever before."

The head drifted to the other side of the screen and another materialized.

"Rouge the Bat. Cunning, skillful, and the inventor of her own line of cosmetics. Rumor has it she's stocked to the teeth with the latest line of thieving gadgets. Rouge has also been helping demolish all diamond smuggling in the Sandy deserts, putting them in heavy guarded museums, and then stealing them again. She is a necessity with underworld dealings."

Rouge's pretty face shrank and moved underneath Knuckles. They rotated in perfect sync.

One more flurry of fingers and the next face arrived.

"Cream the Rabbit. Recently graduated from the Medican school for gifted Healers _and _the university of Empathy, the world-renowned hub of talented and powerful, emotion-feeling Mobians. At age fourteen, she is a locally famous prodigy. Also a necessity."

Tails paused before hitting the next key. He looked at his childhood friend's baby face one last time, and switched it to the next one.

Sonics' eyes widened and flicked to Tails' face. When he saw the seriousness there he shook his head.

"No, no, no. Noooooo way. That is not happening. She is a BAD person to have on board. A VERY, VERY, BAD PERSON." He pushed his hand through the picture and the pixels scattered, reforming themselves once he had moved.

"We need her. She's mastered all sorts of weaponry and navigation, not to mention the only genuine recorded Mobian to successfully pull off a tarot reading! She's stealthy, smart and has connections to _everybody_ important in this Solar System. She's not only important, Sonic. She's _vital_."

Sonic stared at the hologram one last time before spinning on his heel marching to the door.

"We leave tomorrow!" Tails called, but Sonic just kept walking out to the end of the runway and without breaking a stride, dropped off the side to the foliage far below. From his point Tails could see him as a blue streak pushing the trees sideways in his wake.

He frowned at the beaming face revolving in front of him, and wondered if Amy Rose was still so cheery in Newtropolis.


End file.
